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October 30, 2008 | Filed Under Industry | Leave a Comment 

Questionable Charges at Missouri Cemetery

In September, 2007, Jeff Palmore, owner of Bell Funeral Home in St Louis, arranged a burial at Pacific City Cemetery. To save the family the $525 fee the cemetery sexton was charging, he offered to dig the grave himself. Sexton Alan Bruns refused, saying there was a city ordinance that only allowed sextons to dig graves. Palmore researched it, and found there indeed was such an ordinance, but noted it also set the fee at $360, not $525.

Palmore has filed suit against Bruns and the city of Pacific for the overcharge in small claims court. The judge there ruled the city had sovereign immunity; Palmore appealed that decision, and added a claim for punitive damages, alleging overcharging for burials, selling people grave spaces they already own and digging up and disposing of dead bodies, all with the tacit approval of the city.

It’s been a contentious time since then, with an argument during a funeral where the police were called. The city administrator is siding with Bruns, a fourth-generation sexton. No court date has been set for the new case.

October 15, 2008 | Filed Under Industry | Leave a Comment 

Funeral Industry News – 17 September 2008

In this summary: a funeral home employee steals urns, then sells them for scrap; an SC funeral home recovers from an arson fire; and an NC funeral home has its license suspended.

  • There are apparently no limits for some people. A former funeral home employee trespassed in a Florida cemetery, stole over 100 urns, and sold them for scrap. Unbelievable. Even more disappointing is the scrap dealer who apparently blindly accepted this guy turning in 15-20 urns at a time.
  • A South Carolina funeral home is preparing to rebuild after an arson fire over a year ago. They operated out of a nearby church for several months, but are now ready to begin rebuilding. That shows what staying active in your community can do. When Jerry Spears Funeral Home was struck by a fire in 2007, before the fire was extinguished, one pastor offered their church, and within days, other West Side churches had done the same.
  • A reminder from Michigan City, Indiana police: funeral processions have the right of way in Indiana.
  • In Greeneville, TN, a woman collided with the last car of a funeral procession as the car waited to make a turn. True, this was just an unobservant driver, who likely would have hit any car stopped to make a turn, but it did involve a procession.
  • The North Carolina Board of Funeral Service has suspended the licenses of Howell Funeral Home and funeral director Eric Mark Howell. A woman filed a complaint over apparently missing pre-need funds, and in the course of investigating that complaint, the board discovered other irregularities with Howell’s pre-need contracts.

    • September 17, 2008 | Filed Under Industry | Leave a Comment 

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